March 2017 in the Northern Hemisphere

[Otto Fauser]

Hello Lesley , the Iris 'George' is freely available in the trade here and as you point out is more of a mulberry colour and a selection or hybrid of I histrioides . For my taste it is too large a flower , gross.

[Leucogenes]

Aethionema oppositifolium is very nice. A good genus but a pity so many are quite short-lived, with me anyway.


Lesley...This clone comes from wild seeds from Ulu Dağ in NW-Turkey (2360 m). It grows very well with me and is tolerated great heat and cold winters without cover. I like to try to harvest seeds this year and send you some ... If you want.

Thomas

[David Nicholson]

Hello Lesley , the Iris 'George' is freely available in the trade here and as you point out is more of a mulberry colour and a selection or hybrid of I histrioides . For my taste it is too large a flower , gross.

There is a reprint of the ID montage originally put together by Forumist Hristo in 2009 on Reply 97 on the Iris reticulata thread and an even larger version that Maggi found on reply 98

[Hoy]

Aethionema oppositifolium is very nice. A good genus but a pity so many are quite short-lived, with me anyway.

Trond your Iris 'George' is exceptionally dark. Is it perhaps a trick of the light? I have lost mine but it was more a mulberry colour. As I understand it, 'George' is a selection of Iris histrioides, not of reticulata. Correct me though if I'm wrong.

Lesley, I don't know the parentage but these are bought as 'George'. And the colour is very dark, looks almost black in low light.

[Leucogenes]

Opened today his flowers ... Androsace carnea from Andorra.

[ruweiss]

At the Czech autumn meeting in October 2015 plantsman Dr. Maixner
gave me a small rooted cutting of his self raised Androsace hybrid
"Sedlec" (Androsace carnea x pyrenaica x cylindrica) It is a real nice
plant for my taste and I hope to be succesful with propagating it.

Dielsiocharis kotschyi grows rather slow, but flowers reliably in
early spring at the alpine house.

[Yann]

bravo Leuco, i guess pure lava?

[Leucogenes]

bravo Leuco, i guess pure lava?

 correct Yann ... is also by Gerd Stopp.

[Maggi Young]

In the greenhouse it's definitely spring, Anemone coronaria.

In contrast to Yann's A. coronaria in flower, here is a picture from Stavros Apostolou in Greece of the plant in seed - just as lovely!

[Gabriela]

In contrast to Yann's A. coronaria in flower, here is a picture from Stavros Apostolou in Greece of the plant in seed - just as lovely!

You're right Maggi! Never seen one in this stage - until now 

[Lesley Cox]

The woolly hat rarely peels back in such a measured and even way. There can have been little or no wind to distribute the seed - and after all, it is a wind-flower. I'd love a hat like this perhaps woolly round the ears and a golden pom-pom on top.

Thanks Otto. Yes I thought 'George' was histrioides. Lucky that you (or other Aussies) have it available. we don't! Both 'Katharine Hodgkin' and 'Sheila Ann Germaney' have been listed this year by Parva Plants in Chch and from a wholesaler whose packets of mixed reticulatas say they contain both. Of course I've bought the latter (former sold out even before I received my Online catalogue) but I'll believe them when I see them. If true, why can't/won't they also bring in Alan McMurtrie's?

[Lesley Cox]

I love your Androsace hybrid Rudi. Even with no flowers the cushion must be beautiful and flowers are icing on the cake. We in NZ should be making these crosses ourselves since we can't import plants and only some seeds. My friend Louise Salmond (Hokonui Alpines) does do crosses among primulas and some other things but I don't think has tried this one. She has all the species mentioned so I'll have to prod her. Or maybe I could. My A. pyrenaica is out-side and never looks brilliant, not a beautiful cushion, but it does give a few self-sown seedlings each year.

[Cfred72]

Lesley and Trond,
I confirm that my Iris 'George' (histrioids) are very dark too and that the color may vary with the rendering of the photographs.

[Cfred72]

Pulmonaria officinalis are in bloom. It is still timid as development. I planted them in the beds of Corydalis solida in the plant shaded band. I put 3 small offspring last year in late spring.
They all survived.

[GordonT]

Spring in Europe seems to be coming on very quickly. Here in Nova Scotia, there will be quite a while before plants finally wake up. We went for a walk on Sunday, and this is what we saw: the first is a view of a beaver pond on the east branch of Bear River. Nearby, lining the edge of the trail, are colonies of Epigaea repens, the Mayflower.... Nova Scotia's floral emblem.This was one of the smaller clumps. Portia came along with us, for a bit of exercise, and wore me out by constantly making me throw snowballs for her  to chase.